dark

Always the main color of the universe,

Forever filled with the vastness of time and space,

It's always easy to tear a little spark apart.

You see, the boundless pure black curtain is stretching into the distance, farther away!

However, there are still countless stars twinkling, trying to break through the dark sky, trying to poke their heads out.

……

On this day, the lighting, temperature control, air convection and other systems of the Forsaken spacecraft returned to normal operation.

Another 10,000-year-long dormant period is over.

So, the spacecraft that had flown alone for 70,001 Earth years and 313 Earth days woke up.

As a result, the only astronaut in the spacecraft also woke up.

At one-tenth of the speed of light, the Forsaken is 18,341.8 light-years away from the core of the Milky Way.

Therefore, it is conservatively estimated that this long interstellar voyage will last at least nearly 190,000 years.

During this dormant adjustment period, it took a total of 34 Earth days for Hua Kejing to basically recover its health level.

Compared to the previous time, the dormancy adjustment process was extended by 2 days.

It is foreseeable that this process will continue to grow in the future.

"Little music."

"I'm here."

"Am I in a sub-healthy condition now?"

Even though thousands of years have passed, Xiaole is still the same Xiaole, she did not answer Hua Kejing's question, but displayed a string of data on the secondary main screen beside him.

Hua Kejing glanced at it, it was his basic ability table.

Intelligence, strength, keen physique, tenacity, Hua Kejing sighed: "The decline seems to have intensified again......"

Xiaole told him that he should continue to do basic physical training for the next month, because his muscle groups have shown significant atrophy.

In addition, the functions of various organs have also shown a declining situation.

Hua Kejing chuckled and asked, "Which muscle group, the psoas muscle or what?" ”

Xiaole was silent.

Seeing that the artificial intelligence ignored him, Hua Kejing took a long breath: "When I was on the earth before, I used to make iron every day, but I never thought of the deep space of the universe, and it was 200,000 years ......."

"Where did it come from for 200,000 years?" Xiaole scoffed at Hua Kejing's nonsense, "Even if you train for a month every hibernation cycle, that's only two years and four months." ”

"Artificial intelligence is artificial intelligence."

Hua Kejing cheekily sneered, then left the artificial gravity area, and then floated towards the core module of the Forsaken.

Through the giant porthole here, the starry sky can be seen in the field of vision of Huake Mirror.

He looked up at the starry sky, and the starry sky looked down at him.

The distant starlight shines from time to time, like a little bit of hope and dream......

Hua Kejing's gaze wanted to penetrate this thick layer of black fog, and wanted to find out what was hidden in the core of the Milky Way.

The sky is vast,

will make us deeply regret our own insignificance,

The universe is endless,

It often makes people lament the shortness of life.

Looking at the starry sky again,

The depths of the universe are still the same,

The galaxy still shines.

Life is short, time is like a white horse, like quicksand between the fingers, but the universe is endless, forever overflowing.

At this moment, Hua Kejing recalled the bits and pieces of the earth era, and recalled Li Chenjing, Lu Jieshi, Mao Xianyu and other old people.

"Seventy thousand years have passed......"

Hua Kejing sighed, pushed the handle excitedly, and then twisted his body with the help of reaction force, floating away like a fish.

......

Leaving the core chamber and returning to the artificial gravity area, Hua Kejing walked into a room that was not very spacious.

Warm light was pouring evenly along the light strip at the top of the room.

With its off-white walls, smooth floors, and constant temperature, this is definitely the best place for humans to live on the entire Forsaken.

After each hibernation adjustment interval, after recovering the basic health indicators and no longer needing Xiaole and other mechanical equipment to take care of, Huake Mirror will be arranged to rest here.

"Once the spring is full of red face...... Phew, what the hell is red...... Lao Tzu is a gentleman. ”

Extremely bored, Hua Kejing was lying on the thin bed and muttering to himself, and he suddenly realized that he was 70,046 years old.

He then wanted to change another poem to recite his mood at the moment, but after thinking about it for a long time, he vaguely remembered something.

"The Yellow River goes to the east, and the white sun sets in the West Sea."

"The passing river and the streamer do not treat each other in a fleeting way."

“……”

The latter one can't be remembered, and he doesn't have the face to ask Xiaole

Anyway, this poem is about the truth that the mighty Yellow River rolls eastward and the sun sets in the west without leaving a moment.

Time, time, when has it ever slowed down?

Youth has finally passed away in the lonely interstellar travel, but the prosperity and bitterness of the past have been drowned in the endless galaxy.

"Smack~"

Hua Ke Jing pressed the power switch, and the main lighting was off.

Then he slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep peacefully.

……

This was followed by a full month of basic training.

Nowadays, the purpose of Huakejing's basic training is not to pursue excellent physical fitness, but to try to drag down the gradually collapsing body.

He didn't dare, and couldn't do, high-intensity exercise.

For one, it hurts his body to do so, he is already old, and the environment he is in is so harsh.

Second, it's a waste of energy, and the Forsaken is an enclosed space for pure consumption.

You must know that at the end of the day, Hua Kejing's meat quota is only 30 grams.

Without meat, where would you have the stamina to run?

When Xiaole told Hua Kejing that there were less than 45 kilograms left in all the meat stocks, he was very scared.

It's really meat eaters getting more and more despised.

……

At the end of the month-long recovery training, it was the last task of the dormant adjustment period - the spacecraft overhaul.

In fact, the Forsaken will also go into a "dormant" state in some form during each hibernation cycle.

But after all, it is a long time of 200,000 years, and while the body of Hua Kejing is declining, the Forsaken spacecraft will inevitably have some minor glitches.

Although Xiaole is monitoring the operation of the spacecraft all the time, and will also control some automated machinery to complete the basic maintenance work during the dormant period, there will still be some work that cannot be separated from the support of manpower.

And as the only astronaut on the spacecraft, the only senior engineer, the only skilled worker, the only one panting.

Hua Kejing is duty-bound.

Of course, in the process of overhaul, Hua Kejing always likes to ask some strange questions.

For example: Could the Forsaken hit a meteorite during its dormant flight?

Xiaole knew very well that Hua Kejing certainly knew the answer to this question.

But in this already boring day, isn't it good to have eggs to talk about?

In fact, when a spacecraft travels interstellarly, it does not face a complete vacuum in space.

Because in the universe, in addition to free tiny atoms and molecules, there are all kinds of fine dust, as well as small rocks and asteroids that we can't imagine.

After they are freed from their shackles, they will walk freely in the universe and will not move according to the established laws.

Therefore, when a spacecraft hits these things while flying at high speed in space, it will inevitably cause mechanical damage and even explosion destruction.

When the Forsaken left the solar system, Xiaole had already calculated countless routes based on various factors, simulated various possibilities, and monitored the trajectories of the main stars along the way (small rocks, asteroids, and even planets as large as the Earth could not be monitored in advance), and then speculated their trajectories at similar moments in the future.

This is the result of calculating the most suitable route to reduce the risk of collision from the start.

Of course, the Forsaken spacecraft also has the ability to fine-tune its course while flying.

But

Compared to the speed of 30,000 kilometers per second, the spacecraft's ability to fine-tune its course is actually very limited.

Moreover, after the initial acceleration of the spacecraft into the inertial flight phase, the remaining antimatter fuel is extremely limited, and can only be used to meet the deceleration of the spacecraft in the final stage.

Therefore, according to Xiaole, if they have a big accident during the flight and consume too much fuel, then the Forsaken will carry the Huake Mirror to the core of the galaxy.

"If we were flying at close to the speed of light, wouldn't the risk of impact become more severe?"

"Based on the strength of the Forsaken's manufacturing materials, even a collision with a single atom of the ship could cause localized damage, and if the same particle of dust or rock collided, it would be completely destroyed."

"I SUSPECT YOU'RE MOCKING OUR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ENGINEERING CAPABILITIES FOR BEING TOO LOW. Please, you don't know that I've done everything I can to build the Forsaken! ”

"That's just the way it is."

"Then we're only a tenth of the speed of light now."

"Because of this, a single atom will continue to erode the ship's armor, causing severe damage if it hits dust, and if it hits a rock, the ship will be completely destroyed."

"So, we don't like dust and rocks, and we want to stay away from those asteroids."

Hua Kejing was carrying out the basic maintenance work of the spaceship, and chatting casually with Xiaole.

Xiaole then analyzes his problem and tells him that the universe is much more empty than he imagined!

So, how can there be so much dust, rubble, asteroids!?

The kind of picture of driving a spaceship and deftly shuttling between dense asteroid belts can only appear in science fiction movies.

……

The chapter that I wrote for half a day yesterday disappeared inexplicably, and I was hit hard, so I had to rewrite it from memory.

I salute every friend who has been with me all the way, thank you for your support!